Since the introduction of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) protocol for cell switched communications, the specification for handling the flow of ATM digital cells or packets between devices has been refined to a prescribed set of parameters with which an ATM interface must conform. In particular, the telecommunication industry's ATM Forum has defined the functionality of an ATM layer and a physical (PHY) layer, as well as a Universal Test and Operations PHY Interface for ATM (e.g., UTOPIA or UTOPIA L2) interface therebetween, which manages the flow of ATM cells or packets from the ATM layer to the PHY layer, and from the PHY layer to the ATM layer.
Although ATM cells are assembled to conform with a prescribed standard, once they have been placed onto a serial channel they look like any other serial digital data stream and are not readily directly interfaced as such with a UTOPIA bus. To date there has been no mechanism that readily provides for the interfacing of ATM cells between a serial communication type device, such as a serial time division multiplexed (TDM) backplane of a telecommunication equipment shelf, and a UTOPIA bus, so as to facilitate bi-directional data flow between the serial TDM link and the UTOPIA bus.